‘Och Aye’: Reading Scottish Romances as an Actual Scottish Person
The very first piece I wrote for Pajiba, taking on Scottish romance tropes and what it’s like to read them when you’re literally Scottish.
If you like men in kilts, then there’s a whole heap of romance novels waiting for you. It’s not hard to see the appeal of such stories and the tropes they use: A noble chieftain, loyal to his clan and drenched in uncontrollable alpha-maleness, finds his bonny lass and takes her amidst the heather of the Highlands. That’s a bit of a generalization, but it’s one that sells.
